The Stupid American Tourist

Senso-ji and Akiba Fun

Reversal!

Woot. I managed to shake off most of the migraine today, and most of the residual wooziness. I was at about 70% today, but I was good enough to go.

I decided to keep my plans simple. First off would be Senso-ji in Asakusa. A very nice temple, too. The Kaminarimon is a must-see. It’s the big gate in front of the temple with the huuuge red lantern hanging down. It’s the sort of thing us goofy tourists from all over want our picture taken in front of. As you pass through the Kaminarimon, you’ll see a vast expanse of souvenir shops selling, yes, trinkets and junk, just like every other famous sight in Japan. Fun.

Then on to the temple proper. You go in, and you’ll see a big pot-thing filled with incense and billowing out smoke. You’re supposed to rub smoke on whatever ails you, so I just walked through the entire cloud, because I was hurting all over. After that, I sauntered over to the side, where they sell omikujis for 100 yen, and I got #69, which is… kyou. (凶 so you can recognize it.) It said that I wouldn’t have any luck finding a job, in relationships, etc., etc. So I did what any smart person would do. I tied it to one of the racks you’re supposed to tie bad luck fortunes to. *Whew* Dodged that bullet.

In order to counteract any ill effects from the kyou, I picked up a good health and safe travel charm for 1000 yen, and I picked the red one, because the white one just felt unlucky. Besides, red is a lucky color, and white is the color of death over here. I started to pick white, then I stopped and said, “Iie, akai onegaishimasu.” The lady behind the counter laughed.

So with my charm obtained, I wandered around the temple some more, took a few pictures, then went to the long row of tacky souvenir shops. I spent a good 20-30 minutes just looking around at crap, and buying some, too.

If you’re looking for some tacky souvenirs for your really tacky friends, then I highly recommend the breast-shaped manju. They’re cakes with flesh-colored frosting, and little red … dots … on top. There’s even a shirtless cartoon girl behind them in the display, to add to the illusion.

Yes, this is right in front of a temple. No, Japan is not the U.S. Things are seen differently here. If you didn’t figure that out by now, then you haven’t been paying attention.

So on to Akihabara, or Akiba as everyone calls it here. First off was Yodobashi Camera. It’s just.. wow. A 10-story monstrosity full of electronics. It’s where nerds go after they die. It’s like 4 or 5 Best Buys stacked on top of each other, only with really cool stuff, and no lame junk.

But since I didn’t have a point card there, I decided to search for Bic Camera in Akiba, because I do have a Bic point card with a lot of points on it. Thus begins my Fool’s Errand. You see, there isn’t a Bic Camera in Akiba. But I didn’t know that… yet.

Before I started searching, I had some business to attend to. As you exit the JR Akihabara Station on the Yodobashi Camera side, off to the left you’ll see a small glass building called Oasis. It offers two things. A smoking room and a 100 yen pay toilet. You might scoff at a pay toilet, but it’s a damn fine pay toilet. That was easily the best 100 yen I spent in Tokyo so far.

You enter, and a receptionist greets you with a polite bow. Then you head to the bathrooms, where you can deposit your 100 yen coin or just tap your Suica card and it’ll deduct the 100 yen automatically. Then the frosted glass door opens, and you walk into the nicest public toilet in Tokyo. (Well, the nicest I’ve seen so far.)

There aren’t stalls so much as there are small rooms with sliding, locking doors, and plenty of room to maneuver. You also get a powered-up shower toilet, soft fluffy paper, and a touchless sink. You can wash your hands and dry them without touching anything. So nice.

Then it was off to Chelsea Market in JR Akiba for a burger. Nice, but kind of odd. Had a weird curry-based sauce on it, but pretty good.

After that, it was time to begin my Fool’s Errand! As I was walking around Akiba, I found the Toranoana Main Store. Oh, look! Manga! So I started climbing the stairs.

Hmm… they sure do sell a lot of comics here with guys with no shirts on hugging other… guys with no shirts on.

Oh, wait– comics without guys on guys are next door. Duuuuuh. I guess that would explain some of the looks I got from some of the patrons on that side of the store.

So I peeked in next door– ah, this is more like it! No more shirtless dude comics! Stuff I actually read, all right!

But before I started to load myself down with more manga, I needed to make a trip to Bic Camera. (Which still doesn’t have a branch in Akiba, but I didn’t know that yet.) So more walking around, looking at weird merchandise, and feeling that I could spend a week in Akiba and not have spent enough time there. *Sigh*

My Fool’s Errand completed, I went back to Toranoana, but this time the normal section, where I loaded up on manga and light novels…. you know, to help me improve my Japanese. I got hooked on manga while learning Japanese. It’s really handy to read, because the language is usually pretty simple, and they provide furigana readings over the kanji, so you can look them up more easily. And I find that a lot of the plots are more interesting than in American comics, where it’s just the same guys in leotards fighting other guys in leotards, and sometimes they’re mutants, and sometimes they’re radioactive, but unless you’re a radioactive mutant in a leotard, it’s kind of hard to relate to their stories.

So yeah, I like manga.

Then it was back to the station to pick up some dinner for later at Vie de France, then on the train back to Shinjuku.

A word about trains (again? Yes, again.) The Chuo and Soba lines run parallel until you hit Ochanomizu as you head east, then they split. The Chuo goes on to Tokyo Station, and the Soba goes to Akiba. So in order to go from Shinjuku to Akiba, you need to switch lines at Ochanomizu. It sounds like a pain in the butt, but it’s actually amazingly smooth. As your Chuo Rapid pulls in, a Soba local is pulling in the other side of the platform. So you just hop from one train to the next. Smooth as silk. Same for hopping from the Soba to the Chuo. Man, I love Japan. That’s just brilliant.

So tonight I’m going to hit Kinokuniya one last time, then hit Bic to buy stuff. (And a new suitcase. Yeesh.) If I’m careful about how I work it, I’ll be able to plow through all of my remaining points. *Fingers crossed.*

Tomorrow is…. well, that’s something I’ll worry about later tonight. I’m going to stop by the japanesepod101.com studios to say ‘hi!’ (they said I could), then I’ll try to hit Shibuya to get a photo of Hachiko and see 109. Then… MORE AKIBA! Enh, maybe I’ll go to City View in Roppongi tomorrow night, too. Dunno.

For Wednesday, I’ve already scheduled a late checkout for 2PM. It’s expensive, but oh so worth it. That way, when I check out, I can just head straight for the airport and crash at the Admiral’s Club until my flight leaves at 7PM, and I don’t have to mess with having to find a place to put my bags for 4 hours. I’ll probably just take the Chuo to Kanda, then the Yamanote to Ueno, then the Keisei Skyliner to Narita Terminal 2. Or I could just take the Narita Express from Shinjuku, huh? Duuuuuh.

(time jump of a few hours)

At 6 or so I headed to Ikebukuro to the Bic Camera store there, because it’s supposed to be the big one in Tokyo. It’s actually in 2 different buildings. In one of the buildings, they have some stuff, and in the other, they have more of the same stuff. The difference is that in the newer building, they have luggage on the 8th floor. I should have bought it there. I should have, dagnabbit. But I figured that if they had it in Ikebukuro, they’d have it at Shinjuku. So anyway, after futzing around in Ikebukuro for a bit, I couldn’t seem to find anything that I wanted.

So I went to Shinjuku. And helped some poor Norwegian guy buy a Suica card. The poor guy was so confused… he said, “I just came here from Kobe, and I’m totally confused.” I reassured him– Tokyo does that to everyone. It took me a little time to digest Tokyo as well. But now that I have a basic grip on things, and the Tokyo Street Map by Kodansha (in EN and JP), I’m okay.

Seriously, if you’ve never been to Tokyo, you’ll have that same stunned look on your face, too, when you try to navigate it. Eventually, you’ll get the hang of it, but at first, you can barely function. It felt good to help someone through that, even if it was only a little bit.

After helping the poor lost dude, I went to the Bic there. I found one of the things I wanted, and some privacy screens for my DS and my PSP. (Ahhh, privacy!) But no luggage.

By then it was 8:45, and everything was closing, so I headed back to eat some dinner, crash for a few minutes, and then head out to find the laundromat in Yoyogi they told me about at the front desk.

It took a little figuring out, but thanks to the street atlas, I actually found it. Right next to the neighborhood sento (public bath). Fortunately, it was open til midnight, so I could get all my laundry done. It was getting stinky.

When all was said and done, I got back around midnight. Oof. But I had to have my clothes clean– I was down to the emergency clothes, and they were a little… ripe.

Rick Steves talks about doing laundry on the road. He says it’s a good thing to do, to meet locals and get local flavor. I totally agree. While it can be a bit of a nuisance to find a laundromat in Japan (or anything else that isn’t a tourist attraction), it’s totally worth it to see daily-life Japan. And by doing laundry and packing less, you save money on expensive hotel laundry, and you save space for those important souvenirs. (Or books, in my case.)

Tomorrow I’ll get up extra early to make a quick run to Ikebukuro to buy a suitcase. They open at 10, and I plan on rushing the door.

Then I’ll run back to Shinjuku, and my day can actually start.

In 42:30, I’ll be on a plane back to the States.

Shoot.